3DS

It’s been a few weeks now since Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS was released. I’ve been playing the game almost nonstop ever since the midnight release earlier in the month. It may have been longer if you want to include the time I spent on the demo. For the most part, I’ve been enjoying the hell out of it.

The game is not without its flaws, however. It seems to lag quite a bit at times during online play. For someone who plays “For Glory” pretty often, lag can be extremely frustrating. There have been times where lag was so horrible I just forfeit. The lag issue may or may not be due to my internet connection though. Aside from that I can’t say I have too many other complaints. I could be like everyone else and complain about the roster, but I really don’t have any problems with it. Yeah, there are clone characters, but at least some differences can be found. The play styles and move sets vary. So I really don’t have much of an argument there.

Whether you play for fun or for competition Smash Bros. for the 3DS is pretty fun. It’s a bit odd to play a party fighter on a portable console, but it makes for an interesting and maybe even new experience for those who haven’t been playing Smash on the 3DS.

Lastly, I’m happy to announce that despite some serious game play, my thumb pad is still in-tact.

It took me a long time, but I finally did it. Out of all the Nintendo 3DS games to come out this year, this was one of my most looked forward to tittles. Unfortunately, it took a lot longer to beat than expected.

One of my main problems with the game was how a lot of chapters seemed to have dragged on. There were a few chapters which broke the monotony and spiced up some of the missions, but other than that, it seemed too repetitive. On top of that, the concept of fighting waves and waves of enemies really drained me. In the game’s defense, I really don’t play games of the RPG Strategy genre. Maybe games like this aren’t my cup of tea. At the very least, PXZ is one strategy RPG that I was able to complete. Games like Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics have yet to receive such a fate on my part. Mind you, those games aren’t bad, just not fitting for my attention span.

Gripes aside, I don’t hate this game. In fact, one of the main things that kept me drawn to the game to begin with was the fact that some of my favorite characters were playable. When I first heard that Kite and Black Rose from the Dot Hack series would be featured, I was instantly sold. Other characters also caught my interest, like Kos-Mos and Mega Man X. In regards to characters, one thing I liked was how they all interacted with each other. Assigning an assist character to a team provided interesting and sometimes humorous dialog before combat. It was a nice and interesting aspect.

Other features that maintained my interest included the sound track and the battle system. The sound track featured music from the different games that were involved, which was cool. As for the battle system, I found it interesting that it was similar to that of a fighting game. There were a number of attack inputs for combos and even a “special meter”. As teams leveled up they learned more attack combos and even attacks that hit multiple targets on a map. Oddly enough, I didn’t get tired of the battle system despite seeing the attack animations so many times. The main reason for that was because I was trying to perfect the timings for each attack which in most cases I would have a hard time pulling off. There were also special attacks you can use, they were pretty flashy but I never got tired of those either.

For the most part, I did find some enjoyment in the game; Even if I had to put it down for periods of time between chapters. If anything I’d probably recommend this game only to people who like games of the genre, or like a number of characters that are featured in PXZ.

I recently watched all four episodes of Pokémon Origins. As someone who has pretty much grown up with Pokémon (sort of), it was a breath of fresh air. For someone who watched the Pokémon series for the longest time, watching Origins was something to be greatly appreciated, as we got to see a telling of the Pokémon games that follow the character Red.

Like most people, I wanted to see a series that was similar to the Pokémon Special manga. Origins however, strongly followed the original Pokémon games, Pokémon Red and Blue. The story telling was fantastic, as Origins made sure not to drag on events that weren’t important. There was also a darker tone from the anime that most people were familiar with from the manga. Even the soundtrack of Origins was incredible. That may or may not be an over exaggeration, but I did like the game soundtracks, and I love orchestrated music too. In summation, Project I.G did a mighty fine job at retelling the story of the original Pokémon Red and Blue games.

Speaking of Pokémon games, I attended the midnight release of Pokémon X and Y. For my first time attending a midnight release, I think it was worth it, even if I lost a lot of sleep as a result of playing the game all night.

For the time I have spent playing the game, it has been nothing but a roller coaster of awesome. There are way too many features so far that are just way too fun. One feature being that you can make a 10 second intro video, which I spent a long time editing. I’m still in the early areas of the game so there isn’t too much to talk about, really.

I will admit that the only thing I’m disappointed with is the underwhelming number of new Pokémon. I suppose that could be good or bad. I would have thought that there was at least 100 new Pokémon, but it’s actually 69. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much considering there are over 700 Pokémon now and there’s plenty of other things to enjoy about this game.

As much as I’m enjoying this game, I wish to savor it like a slice of delicious cake. Also I don’t want to be that guy who just wants to rush through the game just to brag about it after.

So it’s been a while since I posted on the blog, and by that I mean it’s been about 6 months or so. To be honest, I have written a few articles during my long absence, but I never really posted them, mostly due to me thinking my work is not up to par. Regardless, it’s a habit that I’ll be getting past, and the best way to do that would be to obviously spend more time posting.

Another thing I will admit is that part of my silence can be attributed to me spending hours upon hours playing Pokémon White 2. To talk briefly about it and share my thoughts, I found the game to be fairly entertaining. The story has greatly improved from the previous games of the series, and as a writer, part of the reason I play games is for the story. More importantly though, the main reason I enjoy Pokémon is because I get to raise a team of Pokémon and play competitively with other people. If not on the Nintendo DS, but on programs such as Pokémon Online and Pokémon showdown, both Pokémon battle simulators, which one is a downloadable program and the other is a website, respectively.

So from one monster series to another, I bring up my current addiction: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for the 3DS. For those unfamiliar with the series, Monster hunter is a series of games, where you play as a hunter who hunts large monsters, and then carves up said monsters for resources, which are used for armor and weapons. However, similar to Vindictus, to fight certain monsters you have to take on quests. In some cases you’ll be fighting more than one monster at a time. Or possibly take on a really large monster which is similar to a raid boss. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (to save time i’ll simply say MH3U) came out last week. Since then, I have played for a good enough amount of time to offer my thoughts of the game.